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Episode58
Behold, the Star of the Progenitors We picked up the action in a High-Security Progenitor Research facility deep in the molten core of planet Kong, Hubertus sector. Pete had just hacked the lock and the door was awaiting opening. We opened the door and beyond it was a large 'bc place-sized' room with no ceiling. The ceiling was a bubbling mass of molten lava that brightly lit the entire area. If it wasn't for the ancient fields holding things together, the facility (and us) would have been toasted within seconds. The area had some interesting features: an obvious Core, some kind of Progenitor temple, and a lot of really shaky looking technology that was barely holding the facility together. In fact, the whole place looked like it had barely been held together for a long time which didn't bode well considering our track record with other people's facilities, smoke rings, planets, etc. As soon as we entered a small utility robot appeared and started cataloguing our equipment. Pete, in his element, quickly made friends with it by dumping a bunch of salvage for it (and its friends) to scavenge. We screwed around with the robot a bit but ultimately moved on to the big glowing Core to see what we could learn. On the way we had a 'salvage off' where we found some nifty fibre-optic cables, which upgraded Joe's action nicely, and Kiwi criticalled a special goody (that this logger can't remember more details about). The Core, who went by 'Chief', was quite talkative and was interested in who we were and what we were up to. We told it we wanted to travel to the Redemption but it was unwilling to help. We then explained that we were children of the light which impressed it, so it explained that the gate we needed was scattered around holding the fields together and that removing it would destroy the fragile balance. Oz managed to get it to admit that it didn't want to die when the base collapsed, so with some epic persuasion it agreed to travel through the gate with us rather than die a molten-burning death when the fields collapsed. The Core wanted to leave in two blocks but the techies wanted to stay a bit longer so we agreed on 3 blocks. The Core also told us a bit about the Star; its 'alive', looks like a little sun, and is powering the fleet containment system. Also, it knew a lot about the 'child of the light' weapons program of which we were a part. It was interesting to learn that Proto-Humans were constructed specially to handle the Fist powers since regular galactic humans could not. He revealed that the ultimate expression of the Fist research program were individuals that could engage planet-sized Reavers. Oz had a moment of despair at both the prospect of more Reaver planets and the possible loss of his humanity but he shook it off after a pep talk from Joe. We left the Core and its robots busily working away and then went to explore the Progenitor temple. The whole structure was made of Light Metal (more on that later) and had some statues of figures in various poses. One was holding a Rune in its hands, the other wore a crown and had its hands out, as if holding something that was now gone. The rest of the temple was pretty basic but didn't reveal any soul epiphanies, as hoped. The Rune quickly disappeared into Kiwi's pocket. Oz put the crown on his head where it immediately clamped down and started searching for something (maybe need to be a progenitor?) that it couldn't find. It eventually relented with only minor direct-to-brain damage. Oz figured he could take it with his high base-DC/Regeneration and lucky for him, he was right. The Rune added a bonus to Rune weapons and the Crown bestowed the 'Brilliant' keyword on weapons. Our first 'mystic' Progenitor items! While we were scrounging around we found the previously unknown substance called 'Light Metal'. It appears to have some amazing properties including the 'Brilliant' power which does double-damage to Reaver Soul Skins. Its likely that it has other properties, as well, especially when we start to build things with it later on. It must be pretty special to the Progenitors if they made their temples out of it. The party spent the three blocks in characteristically different ways. This logger has little idea what the others did but Oz felt the need to connect with his family sine he was still a little shaken from earlier revelations. He had a wonderful night's sleep where he Dreamwalked with his family and caught up on current affairs. The Kovinus Zombies were being mopped up and the fleets were consolidating. Uxia was worried about us since we'd gone dark after Betty's Cafe so it was nice to check in. Disturbingly, Oz's dreamwalk with Xacqualina was cut short when she was abruptly woken up. Hopefully, its nothing serious since it sounds like the Zombie menace was under control. Was it a Reaver attack on Kovinus Prime? Halfway through the third block alarms started sounding. There were two craft travelling through the magma toward the base. Best guess was that they were Reaver Hunters. How did they find us?? We finished off our block, set the base to implode, and opened the gate to the Redemption. The Core wanted to carefully choreograph our entrance but as soon as we opened the gate, we could see that something was seriously wrong. Pete immediately jumped through (echoes of campaign's past) with Oz and the rest following closely behind. With some quick techie work Pete managed to save 'most' of the Redemption and we stopped to get our bearings. With Eyes Aloft, we could see that what little was left of the Redemption was embedded in a planet that was being pulled into the gravity well of a nearby black hole. There was no way we were going to be flying the Redemption anywhere. We called out to Zargax who was helping to control the swirling mass of Shadow Reavers holding the Redemption in-time. We got a strong reaver smell from all the nasty magic they were using but there was little choice in the matter since it was either that or the Redemption lost forever. Before we awake the Progenitors we must remember to clean that up. The good news was that the real Reavers were not there yet. We then travelled through the ship toward the Star noticing that some parts were still functional; a power core was working but the engines were toast. Soon, we came to a room where our prize awaited! The Star of the Progenitors was sitting in a clear case in all its glory. In fact, it was so glorious that we all immediately acquired a third-tier program just from being close to it! Also in the room was the Progenitor Fleet pocket dimension (being powered by the Star), and an ancient corpse holding the Lance of the Chosen. The Lance was a hand-held progenitor weapon with Brilliant powers and anti-reaver action. Oz ended up with it, mostly because he's the main hand-held weapons guy, but he appreciated the party spirit and distributed the remainder of his Gineer Universal salvage to the party. Pete figured then would be a good time to assume his mantle as 'Keeper of the Star of the progenitor' (KotSotP) but luckily thought better. Not because of Oz's warning that it would 'melt his face off' but rather because the Chief warned him that removing it would sever its link with the Redemption and pocket fleet causing some pretty serious chaos. It was about then that Oros reached out to us across the galaxy to share a wail of despair like something awful had happened. Kiwi tried to galactic-telepathy with it but it was too far away. What happened?? That was where we left things off... Excerpt from the log of Ozbourne Wheeler: Nero was reluctant but, with some coaxing, managed to consume the Light Metal I offered him. Generally, shadow gives way to light so I'm hopeful that he will exhibit some positive effects of the Light Metal soon. 66 Generic 11 Mystic for the logger . Back to Space Junk LogCategory:Space Junk